Jamie Summerlin Addresses ALMBS

Jamie Summerlin is 43 years old, and a Marine from West Virginia. His wife Tiffany is also a Marine, and they met in Iwakuni Japan while stationed there together in 1995. He resides in Morgantown with her and their two children, Nicholas and Shayna. Jamie ran his first marathon in November of 2009, at the Suntrust Richmond Marathon in Virginia, having been encouraged by a close friend and former coworker, Jason Thomas.

Having never run longer than 11 miles non-stop in his life, he took upon himself the challenge, and began following a strict 5 month training program that led to a 3:31:02 race time. It was a life changing experience for him, and started putting in motion the thoughts that there were even greater challenges out there to overcome.

His first Ultra Marathon, the Frozen Sasquatch 50K, was run 2 months later through snow and mountainous terrain, and he was hooked. Jamie has run races all over West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, ranging from 50K daytime races, to 50 mile overnight races through the mountains. In the summer of 2011, he ran the Laurel Highlands 77 Mile Ultra in Pennsylvania, as well as the Burning River 100 Mile Trail National Championships in Ohio, in preparation for his journey across America.

The idea to run across the country came from a conversation he had with his wife in the summer of 2010, one of those "life-talks". The thought of doing something extreme had crossed his mind for a while, and since they were both former Marines, and had seen how Veteran's organizations had impacted the lives of a few of their friends, Jamie wanted to bring awareness and honor those warriors who had sacrificed life and limb to protect our freedoms.

On March 26th of 2012, Jamie stuck his feet in the Pacific Ocean at Sunset Bay, in Coos Bay Oregon, and stepped off on the toughest journey of his life. That first 39 mile day was a very emotional day, but was overshadowed by every day after, for the next 99 days, all the way across America. His journey was capped off with an epic 100 Mile run in under 24 hours from Annapolis MD to Rehoboth Beach, DE, finishing the run in 23 hours and 57 minutes, a personal best. 3452 total miles, almost 6 million total steps, 16 states and Washington DC.

Along the way, Jamie experienced life changing events, from meeting with Veterans in VA hospitals, to ceremonies honoring our Veterans in small and large towns, to addressing our brave military at the Naval Academy in Annapolis MD.